Terminally Yours
by mickeylex
Summary: AU that goes back to the pilot episode when Emma makes her wish. The knock on her apartment door isn't Henry...instead it's Regina. And she's asking for a pretty big favor.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Right away, I want to say this story involves Major Character Illness and possibly (though likely if I'm not persuaded by readers) Major Character Death. In a way this story is therapeutic for me considering my sister has lived with cancer (the same as Regina) all of her life and I've never had a chance to be upset about it. I plan for it to be a long and, if I'm as talented as a writer I hope to be, a heartbreaking story. If you're not up for possibly shedding a tear or two I'd say this isn't the story for you. As of right now, the story is vaguely in Emma's point of view and I have some ideas for some chapters being in Regina's as well. We'll see how it goes. **

**I'm also interested in a Beta so if you're interested message me here or on tumblr (dorthisles)**

_**I don't own these characters or profit from them but if I did, let's just say season two would have involved a lot less crying on Regina's part. **_

* * *

She makes the wish. Because taking down that asshole from tonight that skipped out on not only his bond but his family just painfully reminds her that the most of unworthy and unappreciative people were given family. Yet her entire life she has been alone.

So she closes her eyes and wishes upon a cupcake for the one thing she's always wanted, deep down inside even when she thought she'd grown out of her little girl hopes and fantasies. She makes the wish for a family.

Ten seconds later there are three deliberate strident raps at her apartment door.

* * *

When she opens the door she stands facing an older, by approximately five years if Emma had to guess, olive skinned woman that dresses like she's just come from a photoshoot for Forbes Magazine. Her shot raven cropped hair frames her face in a rather daunting way.

She's beautiful.

But this woman isn't just beautiful in the "wow she must get a lot of catcalls" kind of way. She looks put together like she's got her life together and isn't living out of a small crappy apartment. She looks like she comes from royalty or at least a rich family. She looks book-smart like she spends her nights with her nose in a book and a bottle of expensive old wine from her father's cellar. It's intimidating as hell.

The woman stares blankly at her.

After an unenviable minute of stillness between the two women, Emma shakes her head of the lecherous and maybe even a little envious thoughts because this woman is after all a stranger and may have gotten the wrong apartment, anyway. "Can I help you?"

"Are you Miss Swan? Emma Swan?" her voice is soft but there's a bit of a sharp crisp inflection to her words that makes the way she says Emma's name a little tantalizing.

Straightaway Emma thinks she might get served with papers for manhandling that asshole from tonight. Or maybe even the one from last week. "Uh, that depends on who's asking." She leans her head against the wooden apartment door and the woman before her adopts an impatient posture.

"Are you or are you not?" with her back rigid and her hands on her hips, she asks in a maternal tone that makes the Bounty Hunter flinch.

"Yeah," she confesses with a repentant sigh. "I'm Emma Swan."

The older woman gives a satisfied smile. "May I come in?"

For a moment Emma isn't sure she's heard the woman right but when the brunette gives a pointed look to the apartment behind her, she moves aside.

"Attractive little space you have here," the older woman says, looking around.

Emma can't quite make out if she's being sarcastic or not so she just shrugs. "Thanks." There's a beat of awkward silence that makes the Bounty Hunter a little more than exasperated. Her feet are throbbing from the heels she wore earlier and she just wants to curl up on her couch and watch an episode of I Love Lucy with Ben, Jerry, and Jack. "So what can I do for you, Miss…"

"Mills. Regina Mills," Regina extends her hand formally. "Though where I'm from, I'm often referred to as Madame Mayor."

Emma's brows shoot up in surprise, but she's relieved she's not about to be slapped with another lawsuit she can't afford. "You're a Mayor?"

"Mhm," the older brunette nods, like they're discussing the cold weather and she's not actually interested. "Not for very long. I will be stepping down in just a few weeks."

The blonde doesn't know what this has to do with her so she repeats her question. "What can I do for you?"

The Mayor removes her gloves expertly, slipping each finger out carefully before finally resting her gaze on the Bounty Hunter. "Ten years ago, Miss Swan, you gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Did you not?" she asks it in a way as though Emma's memory needs to be refreshed.

But that's not the kind of thing, no matter how many bottles of hard liquor she's drank, Emma can't just forget.

"I did," she nods, unsure of where this conversation is heading.

The brunette slides her black gloves into her coat pocket. "Ten years ago, Miss Swan, I adopted that baby boy."

Emma gets a fluttering feeling in her stomach kind of like she's on an elevator that just dropped fifty stories. "Uhm…" Emma tries to swallow the lump in her throat but it doesn't go down. "Is he…is he okay?"

"He certainly is," Regina purses her lips for a moment. She gives the other woman an obvious once-over and finds she's not impressed. "No thanks to you, after all."

"Listen lady. I don't appreciate you coming here and passing judgment on me-,"

"Settle down, Miss Swan." The older waves an indifferent hand to clear the air between them. "Let's not start off on the wrong foot. I'm not here to judge you for your decision. I'm here to thank you for it."

"Oh." She feels stupid. "Well…no problem then?"

"Also," the Mayor takes a hesitant step into the small kitchen. "I'm here to ask for a favor."

"I, uh, sure?"

"Do you have any wine?"

Emma snorts. "I have a bottle of whiskey and vodka."

"I'll take the whiskey."

"Coming right up."

Emma feels those chocolate brown eyes study her every move. The other woman's gaze feels like she's being poked and prodded by an ogre's thick fingers. She pours a tumbler of whiskey. Her shaky hands become obvious with the ice in the glass clatters as she hands the tumbler to the other woman.

"Thank you, dear." Regina takes a deliberately long sip that must burn but she swallows it smoothly.

Immediately Emma knows whatever favor she's about to ask, she'll probably need some liquid courage in her too. So she pours her own glass full, right to the brim, as the other woman downs the golden liquid.

"Three weeks ago, I was diagnosed with brain cancer."

* * *

**A/N: Like it? Love it? Hate it? I'd hate to be one of those authors that beg for reviews but they truly do feed my motivation. **

**Also, wow forgot to mention magic does not exist in this universe. **


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: I'm so glad some of you are interested in this story. Like I said, whether or not Regina dies is completely by popular demand. **_

_**I forgot to mention in the first chapter that there is no curse or magic in this universe. So the Blue Fairy won't be coming to the rescue. :(**_

_**Enjoy this chapter...**_

* * *

Like quick sand the words slowly begin to sink in for her but quickly enough because the seconds roll over glacially until she's able to down the rest of the whiskey in her tumbler.

When there's nothing but clinking around the glass she drinks straight from the bottle.

"I remember when I was first told the news." Regina smiles reminiscently. A shadow crosses her eyes and they blacken as if she's going over the memory in her head right now.

Emma swallows the freshly formed lump from early in her throat. "Does he know?"

"Not yet." The older woman sighs sadly. "I don't want to tell him until I've gotten my affairs in order."

The bounty hunter's eyes bulge. "Is it terminal?" She gulps thickly.

"Not yet."

The blonde visibly relaxes. "Okay…" She feels like she might be able to handle the information now. She rolls her question around her mouth for a beat then finally looks at the Mayor with as much sympathy as she can muster. "Okay, no offense but what's this got to do with me?"

"Should my illness become terminal which is very likely, Miss Swan, I unfortunately do not trust anyone else with my son. Despite your criminal record I do think you've done quite right by yourself and-"

"How'd you know about that?"

Regina deadpans. "Really, Miss Swan? Any information is effortlessly revealed with a credit card and access to the Internet." She tosses the thought aside and continues with her original point. "Henry is your biological son. I assume you have the means to support a child now?"

Emma's eyes green eyes sharply snap to brown and they deepen with something resembling curiosity and esteem. "His name is Henry?"

"Yes" Regina seethes, becoming impatient with the younger woman's interruptions. "Henry needs a parent. Nevertheless if you are not financially stable enough I have a trust set up in his name that will provide for him as soon as he becomes a legal adult. Should you agree to it, my entire estate will be left to you and my son, which is worth millions. Of course there will be guidelines, such as staying in one residence for more than ninety days. Preferably the residence he calls home."

The words bounce around her head and suddenly she feels a headache forming. She rubs her temples. "You want me to…take care of your son if you die?"

"Regrettably I do" Regina nods tersely. "What do you say, Miss Swan?"

"This isn't the kind of thing you can just spring on someone."

"Hmm," the other woman purses her lips in thought. She, of course, does understand this information is quite difficult for Emma to understand. But she's on a deadline and her son is waiting for her at home so she doesn't have the time to sit down, hold Miss Swan's hand, and explain how utterly exigent this is.

"Okay. I will leave my card with you. I have a long drive ahead me anyway. I should leave as early as possible. Please think about it? Henry has no one but me. We are each other's only family."

"What about your parents?" Emma feels kind of stupid asking now. Regina doesn't seem like the type of woman to track down her son's irresponsible birth mother if she hasn't ruled out all of her other options. Of course, Emma has only known the woman for about fifteen minutes so she doesn't know if that assumption is actually true.

"My mother is not an option." Regina says with a tone that beckons no further interrogations about that. "My father passed away some years ago. I have no siblings. If I were able to track down the biological father I suppose I would be making the same offer to him. "

Emma snorts. "Trust me you don't want him. He's not very reliable."

"Ten years ago neither were you, Miss Swan."

Emma's not the kind of person that says "touché," but she does finally understand the true meaning of the word. "What makes you think I'm reliable now?" she walks out of the kitchen, holding the whiskey by the neck and plops herself down on her couch.

Regina stays where she is but turns to face the Bounty Hunter. "I don't." She admits. "But I can only hope. Miss Swan, you're my last choice. My son will be forced into the foster system, such as yourself. I was hoping, considering your experience as a foster child, you would help me do anything to keep him from being exposed to that kind of childhood experience. But I see that I may have been wrong."

"What about some friends?"

A soft, sardonic laugh comes out of the Mayor, suddenly. "I'm in politics, Dear. What makes you believe I have any true friends?"

"I empathize with the kid," Emma frowns into the whiskey bottle. "But I'm no mother. I stay out at ridiculous hours. My electricity and cable gets cut off almost every month. I move around a lot because I'm not very attached to my valuables. I drive a freaking yellow bug, Madame Mayor. And I've had it since I was eighteen. Nothing about me screams suburban mother."

Regina frowns down at the nearly empty tumbler in her hands. "I see," she sets it down carefully like it's a nuclear weapon. "I understand, Miss Swan. I should have known. You gave Henry up ten years ago, why would you want anything to do with your offspring now? Because that is what he is to you, isn't it? A mistake you made ten years ago."

The blonde stands, offended. "Listen, Lady. That is not-,"

"Save it." Regina's voice is like ice and it crystalizes the alcohol in Emma's system. "I understand, Miss Swan. Truly, I do. You gave up your responsibility to my son. It wasn't fair of me to come here and assume you'd want what's best for him. I'll be leaving now." She turns briskly on her heels. As she reaches the door she stops suddenly and turns to Emma. She opens her mouth to say something more but decides against it and leaves.

Emma glares at the abandoned business card.

* * *

_**A/N: What do you think? Is Emma going to call her or is Regina going to have to push a little more? Hmmm...I wonder how Henry will react to learning Regina found his birth mother. Let's hope he's as eager to meet her as he was in pilot. **_

_**Reviews are like chicken soup for my soul and my soul is plenty of hungry. Actually I could go for some soup right now. Got into a car accident yesterday and since I can't walk very much I'll be very inspired to write while in bed. **_


	3. Chapter 3

Ten minutes have passed since Mayor Mills left her apartment. Emma stares down at the business card between her thumb and index finger. She balances it like it's an egg shell.

The nerve of that lady, Emma scoffs as she uncarefully tosses the card back on the counter with the flick of her wrist. She had absolutely no right, Emma fumes silently as she begins a slow pace in the small area between the living room and kitchen bar.

She would have been a terrible mother. She'd still be a terrible mother! The Bounty Hunter gestures around her scantily kempt, rundown apartment. There's a leak in the left corner near her bedroom door that she refuses to pay for. Yet she slips and falls on her ass nearly every night and morning.

Surely that's no condition for a child to be living in, is it? Emma glances at the card as she bites the nail of her thumb. No. She made her decision ten years ago. She gave up all rights and responsibilities to him the minute she signed him over. There's no possible way this is even legal.

Again, the anger ignites within her almost instantly like it's controlled by a lighter. How could Regina even put her in such a position? And why the hell isn't she doing the best she can to keep Henry in her family? How could she just give him back now?

But Emma remembers the short flicker behind the Mayor's eyes. The way her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed at the mention of her parents. Emma was smart not to pursue any more information on her other options.

Regina must have someone in her life that wouldn't allow Henry to become an orphan. There's no possible way wherever the hell that lady is from everyone could be so cold hearted.

Except, Emma herself should know exactly how cold hearted people can be. She experienced it firsthand. Her parents left her on the side of the freaking road in the cold. Every foster parent she ever had eventually gave her back.

So she wonders, how bad this Henry has to be that Regina can't find a single person to take care of him for her. Or maybe it has nothing to do with Henry at all, Emma ponders as she picks the card up again with delicacy as though its a ticking bomb or razor sharp piece of broken glass, maybe his mother burned all of his bridges for him.

She sure turned on Emma like a dime. Going from hot to cold in a matter of seconds. That welcoming look was tantalizing and inviting, and admittedly it was what drew Emma in. It's no wonder the woman is Mayor at such a young age. With an attitude like that, she'd have to hold some set of skills to persuade anyone to let her run anything.

Emma's lip twitches at the thought that the boy she gave up ten years ago may have not landed in the best of the hands. Maybe there was another family more deserving. Maybe it's not too late for her to find them.

She needs to know just how bad this Regina Mills is. For Henry's sake.

* * *

The next morning Emma finds herself parked outside Lou Petrelli Bails. Her boss is a short and thick man with thinning jet black hair slicked back to hide the large bald spot in the middle of his head. He fits every stereotype of an Italian mobster. Every day of the week he wears a different colored jogging suit.

"Hey Swan," he calls irritably from his small closet of an office. "Come in here for a sec, will ya?"

"Be right there," she stalls. Emma braces her hands against his secretary's desk. Malley is a young brunette in his family working her way through graduate school. Emma's never really had a conversation heavier than impending storms with the girl but she's good company when business is slow.

"Hey, Mal, can you do me a favor?" she asks with her usual irresistibly dimpled smile.

Malley looks up from behind large glasses. She places a finger up, indicating she needs a minute. "Yes, Mr. Lee I understand your circumstances. Financial struggle seems to be the theme of the year, however we'll still need you to repay your son's bail."

A moment passes, she rolls her eyes, then smirks. "Why, I understand, Mr. Lee. But if you wanted to teach your son a lesson, perhaps cosigning a bail wasn't the best of options. He seems to be back on the street according to one of our hunters. Now sir, with your particular circumstances, I can put you on a payment plan that lasts a full three years. It individualises your payment into installments. Does that sound fair enough, Mr. Lee?"

Malley makes a show miming incessant talking. "Excuses, excuses." She mouths.

Emma sits down on the corner of the desk patiently with an amused grin.

"Thank you, Mr. Lee. That would be perfect. How about you come in later today so we can intricate the terms and draw up a contract? Very well. See you at noon, sir. Have a good morning." She drops the phone down on the base and looks apologetically to the waiting blonde. "Sorry. What can I do for you?"

"I need you to look someone up for me."

"A bail?" Malley asks, opening her desktop's browser.

"Nah," Emma slides off the desk. "The worst this woman probably did was throw a coffee on an asshole. Daddy probably got rid of any charges for her."

"Ah," Malley quirks an eyebrow. "And who might she be?"

"Regina Mills." She slides the card across the desk discreetly. "This is her card. She's a Mayor of some place called Storybrooke. I've never heard of it."

"Me neither," Malley pouts, intrigued.

"Yeah well she did me a favor some years ago and now she's come to collect on my debt."

"Trying to get out of it?" the assistant asks as she rapidly types on the keyboard.

"Maybe." Emma frowns. "Anyways, let me know what you find out. I'm not looking for anything specific. I guess I just want to get a feel for her before I do her any favors."

The brunette nods as if she's just been given orders from a boss. "Gotcha,"

Emma sighs tiredly before gesturing over her shoulder. "I'll go see what Uncle Lou wants." It's a small walk, maybe a few steps or so, to Lou's office.

The room is littered with open brown boxes and papers all over his desk. Behind the coffee stained mahogany, sits Lou clicking away at his computer. There's a few cups sprinkled on the desk from various days of the week. The oldest one has the most flies surrounding it.

Emma knocks once on the threshold of the door before leaning against it. "You wanted to see me?" she crosses her arms over her chest.

"Yeah," he doesn't turn his attention away from his computer. A few seconds go by before Emma clears her throat impatiently. "Yeah sorry, Swan. Look I'm elbow deep in lawsuits and audits right now. That punk Tyler Lockley from last week is threatening a harassment suit against you. Apparently you were a little too rough with him when he attacked you with a two-by-four. I just wanted you to know that was coming your way."

Emma rolls her eyes, not even surprised. "Thanks, Lou. Anything else?"

"Yeah. I got a bunny for you."

"Uh huh," she shakes her head. "I specifically asked for this weekend off two weeks ago. It's my birthday weekend. I delivered for you last night, I'd like to sit around my apartment all weekend."

"Come on, Swan. I need you. No other agent is as good as you-"

"We both know that's true but a load of crap. No one else is available are they?"

He grimaces guiltily. "Evans and Montenegro are out chasing the Borgoro twins."

"They separated?"

"Smart little shits," he grunts. "Kershaw is still hurt from that fall he took last week. Childs and you are all I have left and because you delivered for me last night, I thought I owed you a little extra cash for your birthday. You do this and you get an extra fifteen grand in your pocket, Swan."

She mulls it over. "Maybe." She pushes herself off the threshold. "You got a file on em?"

"Yeah, I had Malley print it up before you got here. She's got it somewhere out there. I don't have enough room in here." He gestures wildly to the desk.

Emma scrunches her nose in disgust. "You really outta get those old cups of coffee out of your office." She turns on her heel and hears Lou mutter something unintelligible on her way out. She rolls her green eyes.

Emma drops down at her desk across from Malley who reads intently at her screen. She reaches over to the printer with abandoned papers then stacks them neatly on her desk.

A quiet silence is left between them as both women furrow in their research. Emma mostly reads and shuffles papers every few minutes while Malley occasionally clicks a few times.

"You ready for what I've got?" Malley asks from her side of the small room. She's hidden behind the large monitor so she peeks from behind it. "I think I have enough."

"Sure," the blonde drops the papers on the desk. "What you got?"

"Well," she starts as the other woman drags her chair all the way to her desk. "Storybrooke is a small town, like we're talking Pleasantville small, in northern Maine. It's basically on the other side of Edmundston."

Emma rolls her neck until it cracks. "As in Canada?"

"Mhm," Malley sips her warm coffee. She swallows before continuing. "Regina Mills is Mayor there and has been for the last five years. There's about four thousand residents."

"Shit, that's small."

Malley laughs. "I know. I couldn't find much about the town itself. No one there probably has internet. But according to brochures and some photography shots it's really beautiful." She clicks on one of the open tabs in the browser and a page loads slowly. Both women sigh concurrently, both faithfully complain to Lou about the internet speed.

A few photographs load of the small town. One of the Town Hall, one of a small festival held on Main Street, a couple of the Mayor and some residents.

"And that's your Regina Mills. Though I'm pretty sure you already know that." Malley comments. "She comes from a pretty rich family. Henry Mills, her father, has a lot of old money in the family. I couldn't find anything on the mom. Cora Mills. Everything about her seems to be connected to the late Mr. Mills, who died tragically sixteen years ago."

Emma steals a gulp of the other woman's coffee. "How'd he die?"

Malley ignores it and clicks open another tab. They wait for it to load completely. "According to some newspapers he was camping with Regina the week before she left for college. They rode their horses along a very common path that led into the backcountry. Only according to Regina they were chased by a bear into a cave where her father left her to go find help. When he didn't return after a few hours she went to look for him. She found his body clawed at and his heart ripped out of his chest. Police reports say it was a bear but a lot of people speculated it was Regina that killed him since bears don't usually go after hearts."

Emma's eyes are wide with shock and horror. She doesn't know if she should bad for the woman or even more suspicious. "Wow,"

"Tell me about it. She went away to college. I guess when she went back, no one really cared about her alleged murder. Her mother now lives somewhere in southern Maine. She basically led the investigation on Regina. As far as that, there's not really a lot of information about her since then other than stories about how she's improved Storybrooke. Most of the stories are written by the same editor. Sydney Glass."

"Anything else?"

Malley shakes her head no. Emma stretches in her seat then stands. Malley pulls the blonde back down. "Wait, no! I can't believe I forgot this." She begins typing away at the computer. "There is something else. Few things actually. So, you know how it was speculated she killed her dad right? Well that's because he's not the only man that was mysteriously killed in her life. She had a boyfriend named Daniel. When she was sixteen she was dating a senior who worked at one of the local ranches or something. He mysteriously went missing six months after they started dating. Two weeks later, his body is found near a bridge in the woods. He wasn't attacked like her father. Instead, he was poisoned."

"Well that's two different M.O.'s," Emma frowns. "How does someone go from poison to brutally attacking their own father?"

"Well I didn't say she actually killed them."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Emma scoffs.

"Fourteen years ago, when she came back from college she married an old Mayor. Leo Polder. I found some old newspaper clippings and reports of abuse, and he was arrested. I guess Mayor Polder wanted a family because they were in the middle of adopting a baby boy. Which she kept on her own. She filed for divorce and full custody of the kid, which she was granted. He now lives somewhere in Florida with a restraining order not to come back in Storybrooke. And that's all I've got. What business do you have with her anyway?"

"She did me a favor," Emma says absentmindedly as she reads over some of the police reports on the screen.

"Well you told me that. But what did she do for you? Loan you money?"

"I wish," she prints nearly all of the open tabs Malley has open and goes to retrieve them from the printer. "Money is easy to pay back. What she did for me, I'll forever be in debt for."

The graduate watches Emma with sympathetic eyes. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know yet." She grabs the bounty file and her red leather jacket on the way out. She tosses a farewell behind her to Malley, but she's out the door into the cold before it can be returned.

Emma trudges through the melting snow to her yellow bug. She stashes the information on Regina Mills into the glove compartment and drops the bounty folder on the passenger seat next to her.

She's not exactly sure what kind of person Regina Mills is. But she knows that two men in her life who were close to her were killed. Even if she didn't kill them herself, she was part of it somehow. Whoever this woman is, she did Emma a favor. And even if she doesn't repay it by taking back custody of the young boy she gave away, it doesn't mean she can't help find someone better suited for it. She's not even certain Regina can be classified as qualified.

* * *

**A/N: Like it? Let me know :)**


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